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Drought Unearths a Buried Treasure
NY Times ^ | November 2, 2004 | SANDRA BLAKESLEE

Posted on 11/30/2004 6:46:03 PM PST by neverdem

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George Frey for The New York Times
Chris Peterson, executive director of the Glen Canyon Institute, walks along the Escalante River in the drought-stricken canyon. A former water line is visible along the rock wall. The drought has uncovered spots that were underwater for more than 30 years.

George Frey for The New York Times
A severe drought has made Glen Canyon, at the shallow confluence of Coyote Creek and Escalante River, open and visible much as it was before the dam was built.


1 posted on 11/30/2004 6:46:03 PM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem
Easterners are always so happy to tell westerners how do manage their land. The same exact thing was done in mid Massachusetts to form the Quabin reservoir. Several towns were destroyed when they dammed up the area. But I don't hear calls to remove the Quabin and restore the area. Could it be because the water feeds the liberal havens of Boston and Cambridge?
2 posted on 11/30/2004 6:53:25 PM PST by ProudVet77 (Just say NO to blue states.)
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To: neverdem

of course the glen canyon operators could add a siphon to a deeper place, to keep the turbines running.


3 posted on 11/30/2004 6:53:29 PM PST by donmeaker (Why did the Romans cross the road? To keep the slaves from revolting again.)
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To: neverdem

Interesting reading.
Water demand will be the next environmental crisis in America. It could get ugly.


4 posted on 11/30/2004 6:54:47 PM PST by o_zarkman44
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To: neverdem

And when the turbines stop, the Sierra Club is going to get it a@@ kicked.


5 posted on 11/30/2004 6:57:18 PM PST by Logical me (Oh, well!!!)
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To: ProudVet77
Easterners are always so happy to tell westerners how do manage their land.

You mean their playground?

6 posted on 11/30/2004 6:59:15 PM PST by randog (What the....?!)
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To: neverdem
If I were interested in northern Arizona and southern Utah I would not count on a continuing drought of the magnitude they are now experiencing. Areas of the High Plains of Texas which normally receive about 10" of moisture per year this year have gotten over 50". And its not over yet. This is a historical record. The safest thing that can be said about weather in the Southwest is that it is extremely unpredictable.

Muleteam1

7 posted on 11/30/2004 7:01:29 PM PST by Muleteam1
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To: neverdem

Years ago I read "Cadillac Desert." Wonderful book that told the stories of dam building west of the Mississippi. I'll have to dig that out and re-read it. I'm wondering, in particular, the impact this will have on Los Angeles...water, electricity, etc. as LA was a prime motivator for a lot of the dam construction back then. That cross-state water pipeline comes to mind, too. I think this might be about a whole lot more than seeing some river valleys that had been covered with water for so long.


8 posted on 11/30/2004 7:01:54 PM PST by edfrank_1998
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To: ProudVet77

IIRC, all dams in the east that were built only for power generation were either removed or will be.


9 posted on 11/30/2004 7:02:22 PM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: neverdem
"So far" this winter is looking encouraging - Snowpack above Lake Powell is running at 130% of the historical average for this time of year.

Of course, it may not snow again for the rest of the winter. ;-P

10 posted on 11/30/2004 7:02:32 PM PST by DuncanWaring (...and Freedom tastes of Reality)
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To: neverdem
Water and nonpolluting power are going to be the next battlegrounds out west and we really do not appreciate goofy, starstruck Easterners telling us the right way to live. As our cities grow they hatch out their own brand of wackos that see the countryside as their own playground. If they team up with the easterners, all bets are off on what the final results will look like.
11 posted on 11/30/2004 7:02:47 PM PST by crazyhorse691 (We won. We don't need to be forgiving. Let the heads roll!!!!!!!!!)
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To: neverdem
With the lake so low, people can see what was lost, the life cycles, the ecosystem.

Obviously the canyon was there all along. A dam is an engineering project with a lifetime. Eventually the dam would be gone again and the canyon can pick up where it left off, probably for another 10,000 years. Nothing is lost. They'll have to find water someplace else, sounds like, or everybody move like the people before them and the people before them etc. as long as there have been people there.

12 posted on 11/30/2004 7:07:13 PM PST by RightWhale (Destroy the dark; restore the light)
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To: neverdem

Before the dam there was merely a wide creek, so what's the point here?


13 posted on 11/30/2004 7:07:50 PM PST by Old Professer (The accidental trumps the purposeful in every endeavor attended by the incompetent.)
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To: neverdem

Not sure I understand your point. The same can be said about this dam, it provides water electricity and flood control. Not a whole lot different that the bridge across the dams across the Merrimack in NH or the Androscoggin in ME.


14 posted on 11/30/2004 7:08:40 PM PST by ProudVet77 (Just say NO to blue states.)
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To: neverdem
Edward Abbey, the mischievous author and defender of the natural world,

...and author of an eco-terrorism handbook...


15 posted on 11/30/2004 7:11:39 PM PST by Constitution Day
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To: Old Professer
so what's the point here?

Just 2 pics and the history

16 posted on 11/30/2004 7:13:41 PM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: neverdem

I look at it this way God Made it perfect Man using the intelect God gave him used it for his own good God will someday make it Perfect again until the Men have other ways of getting water they may not be the way man wants but God will Provide a way

Until then enjoy the low waters and explore whats not been seen Since man burried it !


17 posted on 11/30/2004 7:14:03 PM PST by ATOMIC_PUNK (Lord, place the steel of the Holy Spirit in my spine and the love of the Holy Ghost in my heart.)
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To: ProudVet77
Not sure I understand your point.

If not required for the water supply, the rivers in the east are going wild again, IIRC.

18 posted on 11/30/2004 7:18:08 PM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: Muleteam1

I can remember a time when the water level in Roosevelt Lake near Phoenix was so low that they predicted that it would take 20 years to refill. It filled in a weekend.


19 posted on 11/30/2004 7:23:35 PM PST by MARTIAL MONK
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To: neverdem
If not required for the water supply

They may say that, but it will never happen. If you remove the dam holding back the Atlantic Ocean (in Boston Harbor) it would flood out Haaavad, MIT and BU. The damage would go all the way back to 128 if not further. That dam (with locks) has no purpose but flood control.
20 posted on 11/30/2004 7:32:34 PM PST by ProudVet77 (Just say NO to blue states.)
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